Winners! "What's Your Green Dream School?" Contest
Announcing the "What's Your Green Dream School?" Contest winners! Entries came from elementary, middle, and high schools; public, private and charter schools, and they all have great plans for greening their schools and the planet. We couldn't stop at just two winners, so we chose two finalists as well.
Berkeley High School of Berkeley and King Chavez Preparatory Academy of San Diego have won the "What's Your Green Dream School?" Contest. Their Green Teams will receive a $500 award, plus training and support from Green Schools Initiative and a basket of green supplies and services. Our two finalists are Park Day School of Oakland, and Theuerkauf School of Mountain View.
Members of the
King Chavez Green Team, a charter middle school in San Diego, call themselves the "Planet Protectors Club." The Green Team has already begun sorting, collecting and delivering the school's recyclables to the local recycling centers. They also hope to establish an annual Earth Day celebration; get
students to do a school-wide environmental audit; switch to green
cleaners, and start a garden. They have many enthusiastic adult and student members on board, and
look forward to the greening workshops they'll do with Deborah Moore of
Green Schools Initiative. When this Green Team collaborates with their 6 sister charter schools,
they will have the opportunity to engage 2,000 students from grades
K-12!
Members of the
Berkeley High School (BHS)
Green Team
Finalist: Students at Park Day School (PDS) Conduct an Environmental Audit
Park Day's "Green Dream" is to reduce natural resource consumption and improve air quality at PDS while simultaneously involving and educating the school community about these efforts. To realize this "Dream" they plan to coordinate a comprehensive environmental audit of the solid waste generated, energy and water usage, and air quality at PDS. Following the audit, the results will be used to determine a plan of action to address areas in need of improvement. The audit will be led by students and teachers with support from Green School Committee.
Green Team Makes Greening Cool
• Creating their own Green Team logo to be ironed on to an existing tee shirt rather than buying new tee shirts (i.e., promoting one of their ideals, which is to reuse)
• Leading one "Bin Win" game for all 20 classes during the lunch hour. Classes are rewarded points for every recyclable item pulled out of the recycling bin. The dream is to have most of the items in the recycling bin be recyclable and minimize waste in the regular garbage cans, and for all kids to be aware of why this is important. And they want to make it fun!
• On Earth Day, the Green Team, together with 5 staff members, will perform a "Cool the Earth" skit and roll out Golden Coupon books to all families to begin the education process at home.
Want to get a Green Team started at your school and bring your green dreams to life? Use our Green Schools Parent Toolkit to establish a Green Team that includes parents, teachers, students, and administrators. Then work with your Green Team to develop your "green dream" for your school -- it could be a big dream that may take a few years to achieve, or it could be a small one achievable in this school year. The key is to get started!
Our Generous Prize Donors:
Green Schools Parent Toolkit and "What's Your Green Dream School?" Contest are made possible by a grant from Full Circle Fund. | |
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100% recycled paper notebooks from Top Flight and New Leaf Paper |
Biobased hand sanitizer from CleanWell | |
Botanically-based disinfectant cleaners from Seventh Generation | |
Training and support from Green Schools Initiative |